Tabletop Recovery and Chair Recovering

Posted by Heather Mitchell August 02, 2014

Tabletop Recovery and Chair Recovering

Original Duncan Phyfe Style table from Craigslist ad.

I have wanted an 8' long table for a long while. And I wanted it narrow. Very narrow, to fit my small dining room. So much so that I had decided to make a farm table 40"x96". The wood was going to cost around $100 for Walnut for the top alone, plus the labor. So instead, I started looking for vintage tables on Craigslist, but I kept running into dining sets which were all over $400 and frankly, I did not want, nor had space for the sideboard or china cabinets. I also already had lots of mix-matched chairs to go with this visionary rustic farmhouse table I was going to build.

Then I found one. A Duncan Phyfe style, mahogany 8' table with 4 chairs for $120. We bargained back and forth and I got it for $100 and the labour began.

The center leaves without any damage after all these years.

The table top before any work.

The surface was in rough condition but primarily from general use and age, nothing too serious. The legs and sides were all fine. I had lots of misc chemicals in my basement, denatured alcohol, paint stripper, lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, and Zip Strip. Something would work but it wasn't going to be the denatured alcohol, nor the paint stripper or mineral spirits. It was the lacquer thinner, ever so SLOWLY melting away the surface finish but ultimately evaporating before I had very much area cleaned up. So, I had used an entire half of a can on a third of the table. (This is when I should have spent only $8 on another can of lacquer thinner; the middle leaves were perfect and needed nothing.)

After using only laquer thinner -- the way I should have continued.

Instead, I pulled out the Zip Strip, a thick gooey leave-it-sit-then-strip kind of stripper. And in so doing, yes, the hardened surface varnish or shellac was easier weakened in spots but not in others but the under-stain was also released and I had opened the worm-can. I only had a little bit of Zip Strip but now I had to strip the entire table top, including the leaves, so it would all match. So I went and bought $10 stripper, $7 lacquer thinner and $8 Watco Teak Oil.

Some of the chemicals used to bring this table back to life.

I now had to strip the entire table to have it match, not just once but three times in some areas due to stubborn areas. I began sanding to remove those stubborn spots but remembered how nicely the lacquer thinner worked. I used a rag to help prevent evaporation. This helped me out a LOT. However, the table was blotchy and still really looked like crap. I grabbed the steel wool and doused it in lacquer thinner. Yup, that's all the wood needed. It looked beautiful. However, the strippers had removed much of the red stain and while the tabletop did look beautiful, it did not match the rest of the table.

Red stain I had in my basement.

Back down to my basement where I had Red Oak stain and Cherry. Red Oak looked more brown than red so I used the Cherry. Two coats of that and the table was swooping!

I didn't imagine how much nicer it was going to be with the Teak Oil Finish. Directions said to pour it on and spread it around, leave it to sit for an hour before wiping down and applying a second coat.

The Teak Oil absorbing on the surface.

After rubbing off the excess Teak Oil.

Mahogany, Rosewood and Teak are very hard woods with tight grain; the oil didn't absorb very deeply so I never did a second coat of it.

Finished table in closed position.

The finished table in the extended position.

I still had to replace a claw foot that was lost in transit, which I thought I could fashion from Fimo polymer clay. (Not so easy.) Note: when a little voice tells you to check something, don't ignore it like I did when I kept thinking I should jiggle each foot to be certain they were firmly attached.

Next, I moved on to fix the chairs.